Online auction-style listings have revolutionized the buying and selling of a wide variety of goods to end purchasers. The World Wide Web now provides efficient online markets for stamps, coins, sports cards, comic books, antique clocks, statuettes, and virtually every other type of collectible imaginable. Even relatively obscure items appealing to only small niches of the population can now be efficiently sold online to the highest bidder.
End users have also been using online auction-style listings to buy and sell other types of goods—for example, discount airline tickets, financial instruments, home electronics, motor vehicles and more. There seems to be a mystique surrounding online auction-style listings that generates buyer excitement and imposes a sense of time pressure. A national or international database of goods can create numerous buying opportunities. These are all ingredients for successful online transactions.
Such online auction-style listing transactions are relatively easy to participate in. The online service provider maintains and operates an online transaction server connected to a database of items for sale. Sellers generally pay a fee for the privilege of listing their items and having them included in the database. The seller is generally able to input a description of the goods including photos, and can set a minimum price that must be exceeded for the item to be sold. The seller may sometimes pay an extra fee to have a more extensive or more prominently featured listing. Sometimes, a seller may also set a fixed price (if a buyer agrees to the set price, the auction-style listing is cancelled and the item is immediately sold at that price to the buyer). The seller may input other terms of sale as well (e.g., type and timing of payment, shipping terms, etc.) The auction-style listings usually expire at a date and time certain (e.g., exactly 7 days after a listing is activated).
To bid on an online auction-style listing, a potential purchaser connects to the transaction server (e.g., over a network such as the Internet using an appliance such as a browser-based computing device) and searches the database for item listings of interest. To submit a bid, the potential purchaser (who must typically register with the online service provider) specifies a price he or she is willing to pay for the item. In “straight bidding,” the transaction server establishes this inputted price as the current high bid if it exceeds all other bids. The buyer will be awarded the item at the close of auction-style listing if the bid exceeds any seller-established minimum or reserve price and the buyer is not outbid. If another bidder inputs a higher bid before the close of the listing, the buyer may receive a notice (e.g., by email) giving him a chance to better his or her bid. In a variation known as “proxy bidding”, the bidder inputs the maximum amount he or she is willing to pay but the transaction processor only “uses” as much of this amount as is necessary to exceed any other bid(s) and any seller-imposed minimum price.
In such systems, the item is ultimately awarded to the highest bidder at the close of the listing (assuming the seller's minimum price is exceeded). The transaction processor closes the listing at the appointed predetermined time and sends notices to both the seller and the winning buyer. For successful auction-style listing completion, the service provider typically also charges the seller a success fee (e.g., a percentage of the final sales price and/or a flat fee).
To secure success fees-which may represent a substantial part of the service provider's income—service providers have generally designed their systems to push final price negotiation and successful transaction close toward online completion. Such service providers may generally allow the buyer and seller to work out payment, shipping and other transaction details independently (e.g., by exchanging emails) once the listing closes, but the service provider has a big incentive to keep the price negotiation and deal closure entirely within the context of the online transaction server. Some service providers have strict rules forbidding a potential purchaser from contacting a seller and offering to purchase a listed item outside of the service provider's transaction server.
These online auction-style listing arrangements have been very successful for wide arrays of goods. However, not all types of online auction-style listings have been as successful as hoped for. In particular, there are significant challenges to auctioning “big ticket items” including but not limited to cars, trucks, boats, motorcycles, campers, RV's and other motor vehicles.
One of the challenges to successfully conducting online “big ticket” auction-style listing transactions such as for motor vehicles relates to the relatively high cost and relative infrequency of such purchases. Most people do not buy a car or truck very often—usually only once every few years. And such purchases are relatively expensive—people tend to spend more on their car or truck than they do on almost any other purchase except (perhaps) their home. Purchasing a new car can be a trying experience—especially if the buyer is exposed to hidden or unexpected fees or does not receive expected options and features. Purchasing a used car with an unexpected defect (e.g., engine problems, scratched paint, interior damage or odor, leaky windshield, non-working instrumentation, etc.) can be a real disappointment. The buyer's anxiety about receiving less than he or she bargained for is heightened when the seller is a stranger, the transaction is taking place over a computer network and the buyer cannot inspect and test drive the vehicle.
These risks—which are elevated by the relatively high expense of these types of purchases—cause many or most people to be apprehensive about purchasing new or used cars and trucks online. Some buyers are willing to place initial bids at substantially below market value—believing for example that if they can get the vehicle for a low price they can afford to put some extra money into repairs. However, if the online auction-style listing price begins to creep up into the fair market value range (the type of transaction that makes business sense to most sellers), many potential purchasers are unable to tolerate the increased risk and stop bidding. Often, such potential purchasers “bail out” only a few hundreds of dollars short of the seller's minimum price-whereas he or she would likely have bought the vehicle if the buyer and seller had been negotiating directly without a computer intermediary.
The impersonal nature of the computer auction-style listing process is a difficult obstacle when it comes to competing transactions for vehicles and other expensive goods. Direct personal contact may not be essential or even important when selling fungible or less expensive goods. However, for big ticket items such as cars or trucks, real estate, etc. that may cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars and can potentially harbor hidden defects and/or fees, most buyers seem to need opportunities for direct, personal contact with the seller and most sellers seem to need opportunities to directly interact with the potential buyer. Generally, buyers need a chance to personally inspect cars and other big ticket items before making a purchasing commitment. In addition, any good car dealer or real estate agent knows that direct personal interaction with potential purchasers on price and other important terms is often the best way to close a deal. For these and other reasons, even though motor vehicle auction-style listing systems are now widely available on the Internet, most people continue to buy their next car or truck by visiting a dealer, “kicking the tires”, test driving the vehicle, and negotiating a deal in person.
While the use of computer technology may have something to do with the impersonal nature of certain online transactions, It is certainly possible to create an online environment that is quite user friendly and which encourages direct, rather than strictly online communication between users. Rather, it appears that for the principal reasons why at least some online auction-style listing and transactioning services in the past have been relatively impersonal and therefore unsuccessful for big-ticket items relates to business model choices made by the system designers. For example, if the online service provider chooses to monetize the representation of information to facilitate connections between buyers and sellers, it may be that the computer systems should then be designed to conceal at least some kind of identity or contact information to prevent the buyers and sellers from simply directly contacting one another and thereby avoiding payment of fees to the online service provider. Similarly, if an online service provider desired to monetize successful completion of transactions online, it will generally go to great lengths to put a reliable transaction tracking system in place or even require transactions to be completed online through the online transaction processor. Sellers of big ticket items, such as cars, boats and real estate, on the other hand, know full well that direct contact with potential buyers is important to closing profitable deals. The inherent risk to buyers in purchasing such big-ticket items sight-unseen often leads to realized sale prices below market value, making online transacting a money-losing or low margin proposition. For at least this reason, sellers of so-called big ticket items have in the past generally been displeased with the results they obtain using existing online transactioning and auction-style listing services.
Another disadvantage of certain online auction-style listing systems has to do with a practice known as “sniping”—a way to bid a low-ball price at the very end of an online listing. In general, online auction-style listings are dissimilar from physical auctions in that listings end at a scheduled time, rather than when bidding has ceased. Such specific close times are beneficial to the online service provider who wishes to push the transaction toward closing and arrive at a successful high bid price so he can assess his success fee. However, sophisticated bidders sometimes take unfair advantage of predetermined auction-style listing closing prices by waiting until nearly the last second before submitting a winning bid on an item that would otherwise be sold at substantially below market value. “Sniping” can lead to bidder and seller disappointment and price inefficiency. For example, an astute bidder may observe that an item is about to be sold at well below market value. The astute bidder can wait until just a few seconds before the listing closes before submitting a winning high bid that is still substantially below market value but is higher than the previous high bid. If the astute bidder times his or her bid submission correctly, there will not be enough time remaining in the listing for the next-highest bidder to react and submit a higher bid to provide a more market-representative selling price. In other words, discrete end times for online auction-style listings encourage last-minute bidding, which in turn suppresses realized prices for sellers.
A “proxy bidding” process is one way to lessen the impact of “sniping” and arrive at a more efficient auction price. As explained above, in proxy bidding, the bidder states a highest bid price he or she is willing to pay, but the system submits only as much of this highest bid price as is necessary to achieve a winning high bid. Commonly, however, bidders do not rely entirely on the proxy bidding process but also expect to be able to better their bids if bidding is particularly active. Moreover, proxy bidding can confuse some bidders since the automatic bidding the transaction processor exhibits when handling proxy bidding is not intuitive.
In light of these and other considerations, attempts to conduct online auction-style listings of high-ticket items directly to end user/purchasers have not always been successful. In the context of motor vehicles, for example, most successful online auction completions tend to be for relatively inexpensive motor vehicles with low margins or for relatively scarce, hard-to-find vehicles. The vast majority of new and used vehicle sales are currently not occurring through online transaction systems. Some sophisticated dealers of high priced items may use online auction-style listings mostly as an advertising tool to draw in potential buyers—and some sophisticated buyers tend to use online auction-style listings to demonstrate interest and gather information before initiating direct, personal contacts with sellers. However, many buyers and sellers—even those who make extensive use of online auction-style listing systems to buy and sell certain types of lower cost items—are not using online auction-style listings to purchase their next car, truck, motorcycle, house or other relatively expensive item.
The illustrative non-limiting technology disclosed in this patent specification overcomes these and other problems by providing new online listing and transaction systems and methods that offer increased flexibility and provide a more suitable and efficient competitive bidding environment especially useful for (but not limited to) selling high-ticket items including cars, trucks, boats and other motor vehicles.
One exemplary, illustrative non-limiting feature provided by the technology herein relates to an openness in transaction handling that does away with restrictions on the ability of buyers and sellers to remove an ongoing auction-style listing from the domain of a computerized online transaction processor and instead encourages direct negotiating by email, telephone, in person or in any other convenient way. Under this approach, the goal of the online transaction process is to sell items to willing buyers—not necessarily to sell them online. Rather than using online auction-style listings to complete online transactions, one exemplary illustrative non-limiting arrangement presents online auction-style listings as enhanced interactive advertising—i.e., a type of classified ad that allows potential buyers to interact with the ad and express interest. Buyers are permitted and encouraged to submit bids, but the online transaction server provides various features that encourage buyers and sellers to negotiate price and other purchasing terms “out of channel”—that is, entirely out of the control of the online transaction processor. For example, one illustrative non-limiting feature informs buyers and sellers who are close in price without informing them how close they actually are, in order to encourage a deal. Upon receiving a “closeness” notification, the buyer may better his or her bid, the seller may lower his or her minimum price, or the buyer and seller may begin negotiating directly outside of the online transaction processor to close a deal. A seller can suspend an ongoing auction-style listing at any time for a limited time period while he or she negotiates with an interested buyer/bidder by for example, issuing a formal offer. If the negotiation results in a deal, the seller can simply terminate the auction-style listing early. This “closeness” functionality encourages many deals that might in other context not be made at all.
For example, in one exemplary non-limiting illustrative implementation, if the buyer places a bid or a maximum bid that is “close to” (within a particular percentage that is randomly selected within a range such as 2% to 16%, such as for example 9% to 16%) but does not equal or exceed the seller's minimum price, the electronic transaction system notifies at least one of the parties (i.e., the seller and/or the potential buyer or both) that the potential buyer has submitted a bid which is close to the seller's minimum price. For example, in one exemplary arrangement, the notification may be trigged by the current high proxy or straight bid (i.e., the maximum amount a bidder has indicated he is willing to pay) being within a predetermined range of the seller's minimum price (i.e., the minimum price the seller is willing to sell the item for). In one exemplary arrangement, the current high bid may be a proxy bid that is different from the prevailing maximum bid (e.g., if it is possible to submit bids that are less than the buyer's minimum price). The notification gives the seller and/or potential buyer an opportunity to establish contact and try to negotiate a mutually agreeable price. In one illustrative implementation, the system does not reveal the actual current high proxy bid (if proxy bidding is being used) or the seller's reserve price—but it informs the parties that those two values are within a predetermined range (which range may itself be kept secret and which may be changed from time to time to reduce predictability). This encourages the parties to contact each other and negotiate a price.
In an exemplary illustrative arrangement, upon receiving such a notification, the seller has the option of reaching out to the potential buyer by using the online transaction process to send the potential buyer an offer to sell at a specified price—and/or the potential buyer can reach out to the seller by sending the seller a price at which he is willing to purchase the item. In the exemplary embodiment, the formal offer to sell may be time-sensitive, i.e., it may expire within a certain amount of time. In such non-limiting arrangement, bidding on the item is temporarily halted while the receiving party considers the offer. If the offer is accepted, a contract of sale is formed and the item is removed from listing. If the offer is ignored or declined, it expires and bidding on the item resumes. If the offeree is unwilling to accept the offer but wishes to negotiate, he or she can submit a counter-offer—and the potential buyer and seller can continue to negotiate on price and terms until they reach agreement. This negotiation can be by email exchanges, chat, telephone, in person or any other convenient way. If agreement cannot be reached, bidding resumes so other buyers once again have a chance to bid.
This enhanced acceptance functionality as described above has the effect of taking the transaction “out of channel” by interrupting the ongoing auction-style listing and possibly placing it “on hold” while the seller and a potential buyer “step off to the side” to negotiate. Such untraditional behavior at real-life auctions would likely get buyers and sellers into trouble. However, we have discovered that untraditional approaches may be more effective and efficient in the context of online auction-style listing and transactioning of certain types of items such as motor vehicles or other high-ticket items. In such contexts, an online auction-style listing may function as a very effective, interactive classified advertisement to attract buyer interest, but a direct negotiation will usually be much more effective and efficient for developing a mutually agreeable price and closing a deal. Exemplary illustrative implementations meet this challenge by providing online transaction presentation and processing techniques that actively encourage out-of-channel price and other negotiations instead of the more traditional approach of maintaining control over the transaction.
Another interesting and advantageous non-limiting feature relates to the use of auction-style listings as interactive advertisements. Traditionally, auction-style listings have been used to drive online transactions towards an online closure. In contrast, in accordance with this non-limiting aspect, auction-style listings are used more as interactive advertisements that solicit potential purchaser interest and contact information. More than simply providing “leads” of some conventional interactive ads (e.g., indicating that the user has “clicked on” an online ad to indicate interest and to request additional information), this advantageous use of auction-style listings provides sellers with the ability to reach out and contact potential buyers who have expressed sufficient interest in possibly one-of-a-kind merchandise existing at a particular geographical location, that they have submitted a potentially binding bid offering to purchase the item for a particular specified amount. Such “leads” are much more valuable and useful to sellers than mere indications of interest in receiving additional information.
One example illustrative non-limiting implementation provides the following advantageous features among others:                closeness functionality that automatically detects when buyer and seller are close to an agreeable price, and suggest to both of them to negotiate out of channel;        ability to transform classified-style advertisements to auction-style advertisements easily and quickly by reusing content;        local geographical search for items near potential buyer;        headline builder and comment builder functionality to allow easy and efficient completion of listings based on standardized reusable text;        selectable auction-style listing duration;        fixed listing fee—no success fee;        conditional or binding listings (e.g., set by the seller);        automatic time extension to prevent “sniping”;        formal offer to sell functionality outside of bidding process and which suspends bidding temporarily;        captions on images (e.g., to allow seller to describe actual condition of goods);        predetermined templates for listing presentation, where can upload and customize his or her own;        volume discounts for larger number of listings;        direct billing;        customer support and training;        dealer can cancel bids or block a bidder from bidding;        seller can end auction early (e.g., by canceling all bids, or by awarding item to highest bidder).        
Additional non-limiting illustrative features of one example implementation include:                Auction-Style Listings—A unique new sales tool that lets sellers list and sell items auction-style to provide an easy to use, productive and relatively inexpensive way to sell items.        No Sell Fees—The sales made are the result of the seller's hard work. The system does not charge the seller a fee to sell an item. The seller pays only to list.        It's All Included—All the features sellers need to sell Auction-Style are included. Adding photos and setting a minimum or set price are included in the listing fee.        Drive Traffic—Sellers get more bang for their advertising buck. Sellers are free to add links to their own website or other inventory from an Auction-Style listing.        Know When it's Close—Whenever bidding on the seller's item is close to the seller's minimum price, the system automatically lets both the seller and the bidder know. The seller and bidder are then free to contact one another and seal the deal.        Close the Deal—service allows the seller to close the deal online more efficiently with an Offer to Sell feature. Sellers can use it to make a formal offer to the high bidder while the listing is live, or to any bidder after the listing has closed.        Get the Highest Bid—Auto Extension feature extends bidding (e.g., for a predetermined time period such as five extra minutes) if a bid is placed near (e.g., within the last five minutes of) the end of a listing. This way, last-minute bidders don't short-circuit bidding on a listing and “sniping” is prevented.        Manage Reputation Feature—Sellers can protect their online image. Whenever a buyer rates a seller on an online transaction, the seller has a certain time period (e.g., up to one week) to work with that buyer and get a positive rating.        Generate More Leads—Many people are uncomfortable bidding on a high ticket item they have never seen in person. Sellers can ease their mind and get more bids per listing by allowing Conditional Bids, which obligate the winning bidder to inspect the item at the listing's end, but does not bind them to buying the item if they are unhappy with it. This encourages more bidding and more direct one-on-one personal negotiations.        Volume Discounts—Sellers can earn discounts off the listing price if they commit to certain volume levels. The more the seller lists, the less the seller spends on every listing.        Sellers can use classified advertising products function in conjunction with Auction-Style listings to drive traffic to other inventory and web sites.        Easy to List—inventory management tools and Auction-Style listing templates make creating effective online advertisements for items a snap.        Unlimited Space to Advertise—Sellers can take advantage of unlimited ad space and free, unlimited photo hosting.        List When You Want—Sellers can start listings whenever they want, no matter when they have time to create listings. A Start Timer feature lets sellers set listings to start up to seven days in the future.        Flexibility—Sellers have flexibility with auction-style listing durations—for example, a seller can choose any number of days (e.g., between 3 and 10 in one exemplary implementation).        Control—If an item sells prior to the conclusion of an Auction-Style listing, or a seller wants to sell to the current high bidder who has already met the seller's reserve price, the seller is free to cancel or end the listing early.        More Local Buyers—Auction-Style Listings drive local leads—buyers search for items they want within a ZIP code range, meaning more of them can visit the seller to see what they are bidding on. A nation-wide audience still has access to listings via a special auction-style search result page tab.        Simplified Billing—Auction-Style Listings activity is included and summarized with other services (e.g., classified listing service) in one easy to read bill.        Package Offer—Sellers may choose to list Auction-Style listings for a non-contract rate on a price per listing basis. But sellers can get more listings for less with an Auction-Style Listings package. Sellers can choose and pay for the minimum number of listings per month that suits their budget and schedule and receive listing discounts that apply to all their listings, no matter how many cars or other items they list. As one example, if sellers have a 40-listing per month package and choose to list 50 cars or other items, they can qualify for a per listing discount on all 50 listings for the month, not just the first 40.        Inventory—Primary page where dealers manage their auction-style listings.        End Listing—Where dealer can terminate listings before the scheduled end.        Offer to Sell—Where dealer can make an offer to highest bidder, which if accepted the listing ends successfully. Offers can also be made to any bidder on a listing that ends without a winner.        My Ratings—Summary Page where dealer can review all their ratings, both pending and published.        Rating—Detail Page where dealer can view ratings on an individual listing.        mid-auction management functionality allowing sellers to end auctions early, move a listing between auction-style listing to static classified ad listing, decrease minimum price, interact with bidders as auction proceeds, and perform other functions.        functionality allowing final bargaining and price agreement to take place out of channel.        secondary notification function giving bidder and seller an indication that they are close to an agreeable selling price, without giving them all of the actual numbers.        dynamic control by sellers over minimum sell and “purchase now” prices during the auction.        dealer tools for identifying good auction-style listing item candidates        mechanisms for motivating buyers to report auction purchases outside of the online transaction environment.        functionality allowing bidders to outbid themselves in proxy bidding.        Dynamic Display Ad—When a consumer is looking at a particular item on the site and clicks on the “See Our Specials” link it, he (or she) is taken to a page. These pages are dynamically created from the dealer's inventory. The items selected for the page include some of the same general type that were being looked at, others with similar pricing and a few that the dealer has identified as items that need to get special attention.        AuctionManager, AdManager, the Dealer Community and our Listing Tool together provide dealers a comprehensive set of tools to manage inventory on the web.        Dealer Activity Report—The system records all consumer activity related to every item listed by every dealer. It then processes all of that information on a weekly and monthly basis to produce on-line and paper reports that may be provided to dealers. These reports inform them exactly how many times their items have appeared in search results, how many times consumers have looked at each item and what additional actions (emailed, phoned, looked up a map to the dealer) the consumer did.Summary of Exemplary Features of One Illustrative Non-Limiting Implementation        
Illustrative General Auction Rules/Processes                Winning bids are considered a binding commitment on the part of the bidder to buy the item listed—unless the seller has misrepresented the item.        All terms of sale (shipping costs, document fees, etc.) are disclosed by the seller.        The Seller's description and photos accurately represent the item for sale.        It is acceptable for sellers to sell an item off-line, however:                    The transaction is ineligible for feedback.            Any site-sponsored guarantees are voided.                        The ability to accept series of items; in a motor vehicle context that means for example accepting all cars, all years, all makes (this includes non-VIN vehicles).        
Illustrative Registration Processes                Buyers and sellers register for any auction-style activity. Non-registered buyers may interact with auction-style listings and sellers, but must register in order to bid or transact online and/or place a rating about a seller after an online transaction.        Registration sets up a login name, public user name and password.        private sellers and bidders can use their email address as a login name.        Registrants choose their own public user name and password.        A password reminder utility is used.        Future log-ins authenticate user name and password.        
Illustrative Seller Registration                Private seller registration uses a credit card and is automatic when placing a listing.        Dealers are registered with pre-existing data if they are an existing customer.        Registration of paying dealers does not require direct contact with an Internet Consultant—signups can be conducted in the field or online within the dealer community.        Paying dealers may be assigned their existing AdManager user name and password for simplicity.        Dealers that are new customers may register either via a sales representative or online via the dealer community.        All dealers who register will be contacted for confirmation and training by the auction-style support team.        Registration involves agreeing to terms of use.        
Illustrative Seller Summary Page                Sellers have access to a summary page.        It displays all bidder email addresses and all current high-level data about the status of their auction-style listing(s).        Other information may also be displayed related to other non-auction-style products the seller has purchased.        For dealers, it will appear with the Dealer Community Area.        For private sellers, it appears within “MyAutoTrader.com.”        
Illustrative Buyer Registration                Online registration collects:                    Name            Address            Telephone number            Email address (this becomes their login name)            User's preferred public user name and password            optionally, credit card number or other information can be used for age verification            Additional information.                        Online registration can optionally be verified through an email conformation loop or by other means        Registrants are asked to bid judiciously on the site.        System does not accept web-based email accounts or requests additional information for users with web-based email accounts in order to prevent spam bidding.        
Illustrative Login Summary Page                Bidders have access to a login summary page.        It displays all their bidding activity:                    Links to listings they have bid on,            Links to “watched” items they have identified,            Summaries of auction-style listings they have won or lost.Illustrative Listing Management                        
Illustrative Listing Sources                Any item in a seller's inventory can be moved to an auction-style listing through Ad Manager.        Private sellers may post an auction-style listing from “Sell Your Item.”        Inter-web site cooperation: a special tool for users to post certain types of items (e.g., classic or collector cars) listed as classified ads at ad server web sites.        An API allows other inventory sources to post vehicles to auction-style listing.Illustrative Manager Tools        
Illustrative FSBO And Dealer Listing Tools                Free Photo Hosting (Unlimited if Possible, a High Limit if Necessary).        Photo re-sizing capability.        Photo rearrangement capability.        Photo caption creation and editing feature.        Unlimited free-form text space for item and seller description in addition to the above.        A choice of presentation templates allowing sellers to “merchandise” their item without needing to know HTML.        Standard, editable terms of sale which are appended to the listing                    Sellers may be given an area to clearly describe any extra fees they will levy on the sale of an item (e.g. documentation or prep fees, inventory taxes, etc.)            They will be given notice that not stating these fees up front in the auction-style listing is reasonable cause for a buyer to renege and/or post negative feedback.                        Content augmentation (e.g., in a vehicle context, VIN decoding, a vehicle history report provider (e.g., Experian) and retail valuation service (e.g., NADA)). Sellers have the ability to order an item history report and have it easily included within the listing (i.e., without having to know how to copy the page and paste the HTML into listing form). Estimated warranty and transportation costs can be populated by a third party provider.        Ability to set a Minimum Price, a Purchase Now Price and a Reserve Price.        Ability to set their own preferred bidding increments.        An assortment of paid listing enhancements similar or identical to those available for classified advertisers (bold, highlight, etc.).        Listing preview/edit before posting capability.        Mid auction-style listing update/correction capability.        
Illustrative Dealer Listing Tools Functionality                Ability to enter their seller details and terms of sale once and have them automatically populate all successive listings (while still being editable at any time).        Description and header building utilities (click the concept and the description gets written or bullet-pointed automatically).        An array of dealer-style templates, which aid in presentation.        Expanded seller contact information (hours, address, etc.).        Tools to identify good auction-style item candidates within their inventory (inventory match with “hot item” data of various kinds and also aged inventory).        Pricing guidelines (preferably based on fair market value data or at least general guidelines on where to set minimum sell price).        Management area where dealers can end a listing early, move a listing back to classified, generate Seller Offers, manipulate reserve price in mid-listing (if desired) and otherwise interact with bidders as the auction goes on.        Post-auction management system which allows dealer to relist, move items back to classified or remove items from inventory. This function should track results when item is removed from inventory (e.g., sold to bidder, sold outside auction, wholesaled, etc.).        
Illustrative Other Listing Formats                Multiple winner listings which remain active until their time runs out or a pre-set number of bidders win at the dealer's asking price (e.g., a dealer sells 15 new identical items for $100 over invoice).        Price-limited auction-style listings, which have a longer (or no) preset duration and do not end until the seller's minimum sell price is met. These may cost more than standard listings.        Payment auction-style listings (lease or loan). Bidders must pre-qualify with the dealer to be allowed to bid on the listing, which will have a set lease or loan payment on a new or used item.        Reverse auction-style listings—where buyers post requests for items they are seeking and take offers from seller who have such an item. This function will be significantly different from the basic auction-style marketplace, and probably could not be included in the initial product release.        Sellers will receive all email addresses for all bidders in an auction where the reserve was not met.        
Illustrative Off-Line Sales                Sellers can easily remove an item from auction-style listing.        Seller can indicate if the item was sold to a bidder outside the auction-style listing, to a walk-in customer or wholesaled.        Buyers encouraged to report off-line sales.                    This may include third party offers requiring a confirmation call.                        
Illustrative Bidding Activities                Registered bidders enter their bid on the Auction-Style Detail Page.        Email address (login name) and password are input for bidding.        Bidders are notified that they are making a binding offer to purchase the item subject to the item and terms of sale being described accurately in the listing by the seller.        The high bid and number of bids will be displayed on an Auction-Style Listing (Search Result Page) in real time—or as close as is possible.        High bids may be displayed with the bidder's public user name. A number can be displayed on the auction listing by the bidder's user name which indicates the number of unique items that bidder is currently bidding on. This can be used to aid sellers in judging how serious the bidder is about their item.        Any amount above the “starting bid” (sellers pre-set minimum bid) can be bid.        Bids higher than the “reserve” price (seller's minimum sell price) will trigger a notice that the bidder has reached a binding price.                    This “binding bid” notice will be displayed online to the bidder and also emailed to both the buyer and seller automatically and both will be encouraged to make contact.                        Both high bidder and seller will also be notified if a subsequent, higher bid is submitted.                    The previous high bidder will have the option to return to the listing and submit a higher bid.                        Bids in the last five minutes of an auction-style listing will automatically extend the duration of the listing for another five minutes.        Extensions will continue until bidding has stopped.        Auction-Style Management Tools (dealer and private seller) allow “restarting” the auction if a “winning” bid fails.        Bidders cannot retract a bid.        Sellers may elect to remove a buyer's bid. Sellers may also block that bidder from bidding on their auction-style listings in the future.        Bidding activity by each user monitored to minimize “spam” bidding.        Bounced back emails are tracked, the buyer is notified via the login page, and the seller is notified via email.        
Illustrative Purchase Now                Sellers may set a “purchase now” price (no extra charge).        This price can be equal to or higher than the “reserve” price.        This price is available (displayed) as bidding occurs below this price.        When the “purchase now” price is met by a buyer, the auction closes automatically.        
Illustrative “Deadbeat” Bidder Processing                “Deadbeat” bidders are those who make a winning bid, but do not complete the transaction.        Some bidders (reported “deadbeat” bidders) may be asked to place a deposit (e.g., $35—charged to the bidder's credit card) in order to bid.        Binding bids (those which meet or beat the “reserve” price) will trigger this charge.        This charge will be credited to the seller's account.        If the bidder purchases the item, this fee will be deducted from the final sale price.        If the bidder reneges on the bid, this charge is applied to the seller's re-listing fee.        Bidders who repeatedly become “Deadbeats” will be suspended from the site and not allowed to bid.        
Illustrative Bidding Styles                Proxy bidding or straight bidding can be used.        A buyer sets the maximum bid amount.        Proxy bidding automatically increases the buyer's bid in pre-determined increments so that it remains the top bid.        Buyers may increase their maximum proxy bid.        When the seller's reserve price is met, buyer and seller are notified as defined above.        When the maximum bid amount is reached and is no longer the highest bid, an email is sent to the buyer as notification.        Sellers will be informed when a buyer's straight bid or maximum proxy bid is close to the minimum price and encouraged to contact the bidder.        
Illustrative Seller Advantages                Sellers will be provided with the winning bidder's phone number and email address.        The seller may approach other bidders by email, if the item does not sell. These bidders are NOT obligated to respond.        
Illustrative Shill Bidding Processing and Detection                Shill bidding is strictly forbidden.        Shill bidding is the practice of using a separate ID to bid on one's own listings or encouraging an associate to do so.        Bidding patterns must be tracked in order to identify shill bidding (e.g., a single bidder who frequently bids on an individual seller's listings).        IP address recognition and credit-card tracking ability are needed to link sellers who register with a separate bidding ID to bid on their own items.        Shill bidding will result in automatic suspension from using the auction and in the cancellation of all outstanding listings by that seller.        
Illustrative Feedback Mechanisms                Buyers need not have a feedback rating.        Sellers will have a feedback rating.        This rating will be available in full detail from the listing for registered bidders only.        Non registered visitors will see only the top level feedback rating.        Seller ratings will be driven by buyer feedback.        Buyers will rate degrees of satisfaction with:                    the overall transaction,            responsiveness,            accuracy,            other factors                        Private sellers will not build significant feedback, but will be listed as private sellers.        
Illustrative Seller Initiated Feedback                Seller reports completed deal (through Dealer Community Area or Sell Your Item).        An email is generated to request feedback from the purchaser.        The email includes a URL to an online form for posting of feedback.        
Illustrative Buyer Initiated Feedback                Buyers may initiate feedback for a seller.        Buyer must have been a bidder for that vehicle (verified through user name and password).        
Illustrative Feedback Lag Time                Seller feedback is not instantly applied to a seller's rating.        All feedback is available for review by the seller for a certain time period e.g., seven (7) calendar days.        An email is sent to the seller when new feedback is posted (feedback included in email).        The seller may either allow the feedback to be posted immediately, or work with the buyer to satisfy their concerns.        If the buyer does not alter the feedback, it is automatically posted after a certain time period e.g., seven (7) calendar days.        A mediation team is used to sort out disagreements between buyers and sellers based on negative feedback.        
Illustrative Negative Feedback Processing                A Security Team will contact any seller with substantial negative feedback.        Warnings may be issued at the discretion of the Security Team.        Continual negative feedback will be cause for the removal of the seller's access to the auction.        Sellers may alert the Security Team to any buyer who uses negative feedback to blackmail them.        Online service provider may remove that buyer's feedback, upon receipt of appropriate evidence.        
Illustrative Trusted Seller Status                “Trusted Seller” status will be conferred on sellers who reach a certain rating.        This status will be displayed on all of that seller's listings.        Lower listing fees may be applied to those who attain this status.Illustrative Reporting Services        
Reporting                Dealer activity tracking including:                    # of items listed each week and month            # of items “sold online” for week and month            # of items reported sold offline each week and month            # of seller offers sent, # accepted            # of re-listings            # moved to classified at auction end            # removed from inventory at auction end            # of active current and new dealers            in motor vehicle context, make/model/year/VIN information of cars listed/sold                            pricing data on dealer's listings                minimum sell price                buy now price                high bid price                                    bidding activity by listing                            # of bids                # of unique bids                “locality” of bids (track bidder zip/city)                                    feedback sessions initiated            feedback sessions completed            current feedback rating by seller            billing summaries for auction product by dealer                        all stats above summarized by Sales Rep/District/Region        all stats above summarized in entirety        for sale by owner (FSBO) stats similar to those listed above        ability to take “snapshot” of product activity (current count of items up for auction, sold items month to date, etc.)        consumer use data                    # of clicks/uniques to auction listings            # of leads generated (same methodology as classifieds)            # of leads driven to other ATC products (DDA, Site Link, etc.)            # of service partner sessions/uniques                        customer service date: registered, trained, calls        more        
Illustrative Security Procedures                An Auction-Style Security Team (AST) will be formed        It will begin as a unit within the Auction Department's customer service team.        The aggrieved parties will be encouraged to resolve disputes between themselves.        When necessary, the AST will determine which party is correct and resolve the issue as it pertains to use of the Auction-Style service (they may remove a users ability to bid or list, for example).        The AST may or may not issue suspensions from the auction at their discretion.        The AST will be responsible for ensuring that banned buyers or sellers do not return to the site during the period of suspension.        Collection of data on buyers' and sellers' history.        Analysis of bidding and listing activity.        The AST will need to determine if apparently unrelated buyers and sellers are connected.        
Illustrative Data Services
Integration of third party services into the auction product. This involves data passing between online transaction site and the vendor. Third-party services can play a role in the auctions product. The following services may be provided in a motor vehicle context, for example:                VIN decoding/new car data provision        Vehicle history reports (should be easy to include within the seller's listing once purchased)        Retail price estimate (NADA, Edmunds)        Service contract cost estimation and/or bundled short-term warranty        Bundled transaction insurance.        Vehicle inspection report.        Escrow.        Shipping provider with online cost estimator function.        Online transaction insurance provider.        Auto insurance cost estimate.        Online payment provider (e.g., primarily for sending of deposits in non-local transactions).        Other.        
Illustrative Lead Management                Lead generation is a primary benefit of the auction        The amount of leads generated can be overwhelming (many requests about the minimum selling price).        A lead management in the Dealer Community Area.        A lead-funneling system for delivering leads to a dealer's own system.        
Illustrative Billing Processing                Dealers who opt to use the product will pay per-listing for the service (a price to list with no final value fee). It is possible they will be able to receive discounted insert fees by committing to a certain level of use per month (i.e., buying a “package”).        Dealers can sign up for the a-la-carte service online within the Dealer Community to allow for paid sampling of the product.        Private sellers pay the same fee as dealer sellers. Measures should be in place to prevent or discourage dealer-sellers from using the FSBO Auction-Style function. Listing durations should be programmable (e.g., in range from 3 to 10 days) with no change in fee structure for duration.        